Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for controlling an air conditioner for vehicles. More particularly, it relates to a system and method for controlling an air conditioner for vehicles which may optimally control an air volume and an indoor temperature caused by the air conditioner according to whether or not a passenger is seated on a rear seat of a vehicle.
Description of Related Art
An air conditioner of a vehicle is an essential convenience system for vehicles which adjusts an indoor temperature of a vehicle to a desired level according to outdoor conditions in summer and winter and removes moisture or frost from a front glass window of the vehicle.
Proper volume of discharged air and indoor temperature by the air conditioner may influence a second or third row seat as well as a first row seat and thus provide indoor comfort to passengers on the second or third row seat as well as passengers on the first row seat.
However, if there is no passenger on the second and third row seats of the vehicle, the volume of air is unnecessarily discharged toward the second and third row seats and unnecessary energy is consumed.
Conventionally, in consideration of such a problem, a technique, in which infrared (IR) sensors sense that there is no passenger on the second and third seats of the vehicle and the volume of air discharged through second row discharge holes is reduced or removed, may be employed, thus being capable of reducing the volume of air unnecessarily discharged through the second row discharge holes, decreasing the driving time and driving amount of the air conditioner and thus saving energy.
However, since a total of 6 or more IR sensors are used to sense whether or not passengers are seated on the rear seats (second and third row seats), cost increase may be caused.
That is, in case of the convectional technique, the IR sensors are used not only to measure the temperature of a passenger on a passenger sitting part to detect whether or not a passenger is seated on the passenger sitting part but also to separately measure a reference temperature of a reference point of a passenger unboarded region (for example, a central region of the rear seat) and whether or not a passenger is seated on the passenger sitting part is judged using a temperature difference between the passenger sitting part and the passenger unboarded region. Additional use of such a separate IR sensor to measure the reference temperature in addition to the IR sensors to measure the temperatures of passengers may cause cost increase and weight increase.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.